Special educators and classroom teachers working with students ages 6 to 14 (grades 1-9), reading specialists and coaches, school psychologists, principals, staff developers, and teacher educators. May serve as a text in graduate-level courses.

Louise Spear-Swerling, PhD, is Professor Emerita in the Department of Special Education at Southern Connecticut State University. She helped prepare both general and special educators to teach reading using Structured Literacy approaches for many years, including supervising a public school tutoring program that paired teacher candidates with struggling readers. Her research interests include children's reading development, reading difficulties, and the knowledge and skills needed to teach reading effectively, especially to struggling and at-risk readers. She has presented and published widely on these topics. Dr. Spear-Swerling is author or editor of several books and is an editorial board member for several journals, including Annals of Dyslexia, Teaching Exceptional Children, and Reading Psychology. She consults often for K-12 school districts, mostly on students with severe or persistent literacy difficulties and ways to improve their achievement.